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THE DEPARTMENT 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HYGIENE 



AMHERST COLLEGE. 



PROF. EDWAED HITCHCOCK, M.D. 



*t^ 




BOSTON: 

'^RxiH, Sberg, ^ ffl^a., Printers to tlje ([Damm0ntoEaItIj, 

117 Franklin Street. 



1879. 



. K 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION IN AMHEEST COLLEGE. 



" There is a Divine Image in the future to which the nation must aspire. 
The first step towards it is to improve the health of the present generation." — 
Dr. William Faek. 

Not only educators, but too many persons engaged in 
brain-work, are culpable in that the body is let alone, pre- 
suming that the physical organization of man will take care 
of itself, just as water runs down hill, or weeds grow ; not 
remembering the absolute interdependence of body and 
brain. The fact is forgotten, that when both body and mind 
are in a healthy condition they are like sworn friends to each 
other, but when not in harmonious co-operation, — when 
.either one is diseased or disordered, — they are like bitter 
enemies acting towards one another with the most destructive 
malignity. , As a gifted author expresses himself, " Neither 
mental serenity nor mental development can exist with an 
unhealthy animal organization." The importance of a de- 
partment caring for bodily health in our schools is well ex- 
pressed by Dr. Tanner, who says : " What is really desirable 
is a methodical system of drill and exercise fitted to produce 
a sound constitution in the average boy. To secure this, 
every school ought to have a well-fitted gymnasium, attend- 
ance and work in which should be as regular and system- 
atic as in the class-room." 

From the beginning of the existence of the department of 
physical education in Amherst College, it has never been the 
desire to develop the muscular system at the expense of any 
other part of the body, as is too often understood to be the 
meaning of physical education or training. This department 
was not created, nor has it been developed, for the purpose 
of extraordinary attention to the muscular system. Its sole 
object has been to keep the bodily health up to the normal 
standard, so that the mind may accomplish the most work, 



4 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan. 

and to preserve the bodily powers in full activity for both the 
daily duties of college and the promised labor of a long life. 
Indeed, in that particular, the j)recept of Cicero has been lit- 
erally followed ; namely, that bodily exercise should have for 
its chief object the development of a capacity for rational 
work. At the same time, it has been equally desired, that 
the so-called exercises of this department should be men- 
tally as well as physically enjoyed by the students, and not 
be made a tedious, mechanical, or heavy drill. 

During the early administration of President Stearns, the 
apathy in relation to bodily health, the sad deaths of two 
promising young men, and the breaking down in health of 
others just at the end of their college courses, impelled him 
to protest against these failures as unnecessary, and to de- 
mand that the students should receive discipline in the care 
of their bodies as well as of their intellects, and that the 
government of the college should give a proper attention to 
physical health, as well as to the culture of those powers for 
which departments were ordinarily created and endowments 
made. The idea was also impressively set forth by him, that, 
without the support of well-developed bodily powers and 
functions, the mental faculties could not reach their full de- 
velopment. To his mind, there could be no perfect manly 
character and culture, without the proper blending and har- 
monious development of the three elements, the bodily, men- 
tal, and spiritual. In the year 1859, the sixth of his admin- 
istration, the trustees of the college, by his advice, created a 
department of physical education and hygiene. In the lan- 
guage of the catalogue of 1861-2, " Its design is to secure 
healthful daily exercise and recreation to all the students; to 
instruct them in the use of the vocal organs, movements of 
the body, and manners, as connected with oratory ; and to 
teach them, both theoretically and practically, the laws of 
health. This daily physical training is a part of the regular 
college course. The professor is an educated physician, and 
has not only a general oversight of the health of the col- 
lege, but the students have the privilege of consulting him 
without charge. While the gymnasium will furnish oppor- 
tunities for the highest physical training, the required exer- 
cises will be such as can be performed without undue effort 
or risk of injury." 



1879.] PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 5 

The duties of this professorship were established by the 
trustees, upon the suggestions of one of their number, Dr. 
Nathan Allen of Lowell, as follows : — 

1. To take charge of the gymnasium and give instruction 
to the students in gymnastics. 

2. To have a general oversight of the health of the stu- 
dents, and to give such instruction on the subject as may be 
deemed expedient, according to the general plan stated by 
the president in his report, and under the direction of the 
faculty, like all the other studies. 

3. To teach elocution, so far as it is connected with physi- 
cal training. 

4. To give lectures, from time to time, on hygiene, physi- 
cal culture, and other topics pertaining to the laws of life 
and health, including some general knowledge of anatomy 
and physiology. 

5. The individual appointed to have charge of this depart- 
ment must be a thoroughly educated physician, a member of 
the college faculty. It is distinctly understood that the 
health of the students shall, at all times, be an object of his 
special watch, care, and counsel. 

At the same time, the faculty believed that the exercises 
should be conducted according to the following ideas : — 

"1. The main object shall not be to secure feats of agility 
and strength, or even powerful muscle, but to keep in good 
health the whole body. 

" 2. All the students shall be required to attend on its 
exercises for half an hour, designated for the purpose, at 
least four days in the week. 

" 3. The instructor shall assign to each individual such ex- 
ercises as may be best adapted to him, taking; special care to 
prevent the ambitious from violent action and all extremes, 
endeavoring to work the whole body, and not overwork any 
part of it. 

"• 4. While it may not be expedient to mark the gradation 
of attainment as in the intellectual branches, yet regularity, 
attention, and docility should be carefully noted, so as to have 
their proper weight in the deportment columii of the stu- 
dent's general position. 

" 5. Some time shall be allowed out of study-hours for those 
volunteer exercises which different men, according to their 



6 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan. 

tastes, may elect for recreation ; and particularly the bowling- 
alleys shall not be given up to promiscuous use, but allotted 
at regular hours to those Avho wish to make use of them : 
all these volunteer exercises, of whatever kind, to be under 
the supervision of the gymnasium-instructor. 

" 6. The building shall always be closed before dark ; no 
light shall be used in it, and no smoking or irregularities of 
any kind shall be allowed in it. 

" 7. The instructor ought to be a meniber of the faculty, 
and give in to it his marks and occasional accounts, and re- 
ceive directions as other officers of the college are accustomed 
to do." 

This department is now in the eighteenth year of its exist- 
ence. An essential feature of it is, that each student with 
his class by itself, at a stated hour on four days of the week, 
appears at the gymnasium, and performs his part in systematic 
and methodical exercises timed to music. Each class has its 
own organization of officers and men, and its own monogram 
on the college uniform dress of Middlesex blue flannel. The 
exercises are commonly known as those of light gymnastics, 
which consist of various bodily movements accompanied and 
guided by music ; the larger part of them with a wooden 
dumb-bell in each hand. These are so arranged as to give 
vigorous and active motion to all the muscles of the body. 
With a temperature of 60° F., nine out of ten persons, at- the 
close of a fifteen-minutes' exercise, with the metronome at 85 
or 90, will show perspiration over a large part of the body. 
Especially during the colder season of the year, running is 
practised by the class on the floor of the gymnasium. A few 
marching movements are also undertaken by the classes. 
This amount of exercise is required of every student who is 
sound in limb. 

^^ The fact that physical education is placed on an equality of 
position with each of the other departments, and contributes 
to a recognition of the character and standing of the student 
in the college records, is probably its most striking feature as 
an educational measure. It is thus an indication that health 
and physical exercise are of prime importance. This recog^ 
nition is not merely suggestive ; but the enforcing of attend- 
ance to these duties tells the student that his character in 
college will be decided, in part, by the manner in which he 



1879.] PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 7 

obeys the laws of Ms body, and attends to its proper care. 
Another feature made prominent in the exercises is that they 
shall not be of so mechanical and inflexible a nature as to 
destroy a free enjoyment of them. 

While a necessary uniformity and periodicity are main- 
tained, yet the elasticity of young nature is not so curbed 
that the student must act with the monotony of a machine, 
or with the absolute precision of the manual of arms, day by 
day, week by week, and year by year. For not only is this 
exercise of value to favor the chemical changes which ac- 
company muscular activity; but it is desired, at the same 
time, to give the mind and spirits opportunity to escape, for 
the half-hour, from scientific and literary restraints and occu- 
pation, and enjoy the liberty of rational animal life ; to allow 
the animal powers and sensibilities a chance for "full play; " 
to induce the material and social nature to such use and 
recreation as shall compensate its repression while engaged 
in the absorbing application of close study ; or, in short, to 
compel the intellectual to rest while the material shall work. 
Hence a much greater latitude of noise, shouting, and free- 
dom is allowed in connection Avith the exercises than would 
be expected by a school-teacher of gymnastics, or a drill- 
master ; and it is allowed as an important element or safety- 
valve of the system. Professor W. S. Tyler in speaking of / 
this matter says, " If I were asked to specify what I consider 
to be the most marked characteristic and distinctive excel- 
lence of the Amherst gymnastics, I should say that it is the 
union of recreation and amusement with exercise, of the 
voluntary and spontaneous with the required and the pre- 
scribed, — in a word, of play with work." 

These exercises apparently satisfy and meet the necessities 
of probably nine-tenths of the students, as they come and go. 
Of the remainder, a few need special direction to undertake 
more muscular exercise in general, or the use of apparatus 
which shall help special organs or parts of the body. Such 
young men are generally those not in full development, or 
possessing an imperfect bodily inheritance, or with a tendency 
to use the brain at the expense of the bodily powers. 

There are always a few in every class for whom the reg- 
ular drill and the extra hour of walk, rain or shine, advised 
to all the college, does not satisfy the muscular energy. For 



8 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan. 

all such, there is an ample supply of so-called heavy gymnas- 
tic apparatus, in the form of bowling-alleys, Indian clubs, 
rowing-weights, bars, poles, boards, ropes, spirometers, and 
djmamometers, at which a few of them work, perhaps an 
hour a day, under reasonable requirements. This, with 
proper caution about excess, is not a compulsory part of the 
exercise. 

When the plan of required physical exercise was first pro- 
posed, it was felt that while authority might compel study 
and attendance upon recitations, prayers, and lectures, it 
could not force muscular exercise and recreation upon any- 
body. The facts, however, in the matter, may be learned by 
comparing the attendance upon prayers and recitations with 
the gymnastic exercise. During the 3'ear 1877-78, the aver- 
age daily attendance of all the college upon gymnastic exer- 
cises was 95.36 per cent. Statistics, secured at four different 
periods, of the absence from college-prayers, give an average 
attendance of 84.50 per cent, or over ten per cent in favor 
of the physical exercises. During the fall term of 1878, the 
same comparison was made between the President's recita- 
tions and lectures with the senior class in psycholog}^ and 
the physical exercises in the gymnasium for all the college ; 
with a result of 94 per cent for the former, and 94.8 per 
cent for the latter. The class of 1878, just before their 
graduation, in making out a series of statistics of opinions 
on matters reviewed by their course, gave 74 out of 77 
as " in favor of compulsory attendance at the gymnasium 
exercises." 

The system of exercises, as practised at Amherst, brings 
each student into the presence of the head of the department 
very frequently, and in such a way as to exhibit his physical 
condition to good advantage. Every thing in the gymna- 
sium excites to jubilant muscular activity ; and in no way 
does a young person show that he feels perfectly well, better 
than by active bodily — including vocal — movements. It is 
known that some people counterfeit sickness in order to 
avoid a duty or effort, but it is a rare occurrence for any one 
to feign excellent health. The professor in charge is re- 
quired to know the physical condition of all the students 
during term-time, as far as possible. No student may be 
absent more than one day from college duties, without the 



1879.] PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 9 

professor's excuse ; though he may employ whatever physi- 
cian he may choose, if ill or injured. 

The statistics of this department sho^y some interesting 
facts in reference to the duration of sickness among the stu- 
dents of the college. Dr. Edward Jarvis says that the aver- 
age amount of time lost on account of sickness by each 
laborer in Europe is from 19 to 20 days each year ; and in 
the Massachusetts Board of Health Report for 1872 it is esti- 
mated, that, for that year, 13 days' labor was lost by sickness 
for each productive person in the Commonwealth. The re- 
turns of Amherst College sick-list for term-time give 2.64 
days as an annual average of time lost to every student, and 
of 11.36 days to each sick student, for 17 years. 

The maladies from which the students have suffered are, 
as would of course be expected, the common, and, to some 
extent unavoidable, affections of J'^oung and vigorous men. 
Thirty-three per cent have been colds and catarrhal dis- 
orders. A little more than nine per cent have been from 
phj-sical injury, though no serious accident has ever happened 
in the gymnasium. Eye-troubles have constituted five per 
cent ; boils gave the same proportion. About five per cent 
were of tonsilitis and sore throat, and there were a few 
cases of typhoid or enteric fever. No epidemic has visited 
the college for the past twenty years. 

A decrease in the amount of sickness during the course is 
an important feature in the health of the college. Taking 
the number on the sick-list in the Freshman year as 1,000, 
the number for the Sophomore year is represented by 912; 
for the Junior year, by 759 ; and for the Senior year, by 575. 
That is, the relative sickness of the different classes in the 
college is, in the Senior year 1.00 ; in the Junior year, 1.32 ; 
in the Sophomore year, 1.58 ; in the Freshman year, 1.74. 

During the past 17 years, of the 1,262 different students 
in Amherst College, 56, or 4.44 per cent, have left the institu- 
tion on account of alleged ill health. Of these 56, 36 have 
never returned ; and 20 have re-entered and graduated, or are 
now members of the college. This loss amounts to a final 
giving up of the college-course by 2.85 per cent of all who 
have entered. 

To secure a series of vital statistics from all the students 
of the college, is another duty belonging to the department 



10 STATE BOARD OF HEALTH. [Jan. 79. 

of hygiene. This consists of a record of certain bodily 
measurements made twice during the Freshman year and 
annually thereafter. The statistical records are, age, weight, 
height, girth of chest, girth of arm, girth of fore-arm, capa- 
city of lungs, finger-reach, and body-lift, or a simple test of 
muscular strength. Dr. Hasket Derby, of Boston, during 
the past four years, has personally examined the eyes of 
every Freshman entering Amherst College, to ascertain the 
proportion and increase of near-sight among the students, 
and if possible to suggest the best preventive measures or 
treatment therefor. No results as yet have been obtained, 
as the first class examined is still in college. It is believed 
that such examinations for eight consecutive years will give 
much light on this subject so important to students. 

It seems fair to suppose that the life of the student is as 
healthful as are lives in other occupations, if not more so. ■ 
The student in the ordinary boarding-house or college dor- 
mitory is certainly no better cared for than are most young 
men of the same age ^ of the mercantile and many of the 
artisan class. His chance for physical exercise and out-door 
air and sunlight is much below that of a large part of man- 
kind. There is no evidence that the student, with his in- 
heritance and early environment, starts in life any better 
" selected " than do his playmates who enter the store, ma- 
chine-shop, or the farm. In the matter of vacations, the stu- 
dent has the advantage, as usually his is distributed through 
the year over two or three periods, while most persons in 
other occupations are obliged to condense theirs into one, and 
that a period less than the amount enjoyed by the college 
student. 

The results accomplished by this department in Amherst 
College lead its government to continue its existence, and 
sustain it on a par with the others, even though it may not 
be managed with the system and discipline of the sanitary 
organization in our army and navy. Even if its methods of 
management may not be such as can be used in other branch- 
es of educational work, yet it is certainly valuable to the 
student if by it he is able to maintain more than an average 
degree of health and work. 

1 From nineteen to twenty-three years, on an average. 



THE DEPARTMENT 



PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HYGIENE 



AMHERST COLLEGE. 



BY 

PROF. EDWARD HITCHCOCK, M.D. 



BOSTON: 

Iclanli, 'glberg, ^ Co., Printers to t^t C0mm0nbjealtf}, 

117 Franklin Street. 
1879. 



